" 'Morning, Ron," Hermione said cheerfully as she plopped down at their table
next to him. He pecked her cheek in greeting.
"You missed a show last night," Ron said, smiling widely as he subtly pointed
out Ginny who was sitting across from them, looking at her food and nothing
else. She didn't even seem to have noticed that Hermione had come down. "You
really shouldn't have gone to bed so early."
Hermione gave him an annoyed look and puffed out her cheeks briefly to
emphasize her irritation. "I was *tired*. *You* of all people should know
*why*."
Ron gave her a guilty look, then decided to make it up by giving her a short
kiss and an innocent smile. Hermione shook her head, but couldn't hide her
own smile. "Ginny! Yoo hoo, are you there?"
Ginny looked up, startled. "Oh. Hi, Hermione. Sorry -- just a little deep in
thought. What is it?"
"What were you thinking about?" Hermione asked.
Ginny's eyes widened slightly. "Nothing. Just . . . homework. Wondering if I
did my Potions essay correctly."
Hermione's own eyes lit up. "Well I can help you! What was it on? I'm sure I
can tell you if you did it right if you can give me a--"
Hermione stopped as Ron whispered in her ear: "She's lying, you know. That
wasn't what she was thinking about so don't bother." The simple words had
nothing in then more than fact, but a shiver still went to Hermione's spine
as Ron's lips lingered so close to the sensitive skin on her neck. She closed
her eyes tightly to block out the thoughts running through her head, thinking
about what had happened last time she'd skipped class for some Ron time. When
she openend them she was angry to find a smirk on Ron's face and his eyes
glittering knowingly. She swatted him and glared.
Ginny, not seeming to notice Hermione's unfinished sentence, had gone back to
playing with her food.
"Okay, Ron, if you know all then do tell me what happened last night,"
Hermione said in an exasperated whisper after a few moments of silence.
"Well . . ."
* * * * *
**Previous Night**
". . . Okay, my turn. Truth or dare, Ginny?" Cressida, a fellow sixth year,
said to Ginny with a bright smile.
Ginny considered. "Dare," she said with a grin similiar to Cressida's on her
face. So far no one had had to do anything *to* drastic -- just a little
annoyance to the Fat Lady which cracked everyone up and a few people were
wearing different clothes than they'd started out with, so Ginny wasn't very
worried.
"I dare you to . . . kiss . . ." Cressida looked around the group of them and
Ginny's face took on horror. The only bright spot was that Harry was sitting
there. Maybe Cressida would be nice and choose him . . .
Cressida sighed briefly finding no one in the circle, then a malicious look
swept her face. "I dare you to kiss Morton Uuk from Hufflepuff. Then tell him
you've been in love with him for quite awhile."
Ginny's jaw dropped and several people snickered; a few gasps were also heard.
Morton Uuk -- the single most disgusting person ever alive. He had a retainer
that went over his whole face and seemed to never blow his nose. His breath
stunk like garlic and came out in great wheezes that knocked his wiry frame
into coughing fits occasionally.
"No!" Ginny immediately said. She buried her head in her hands. "No, no, no!"
"You have to. We all did our dares."
"How am I even supposed to get around that retainer?" Ginny nearly shrieked,
her voice high and squeaky.
"Find a way," Cressida answered, tossing her gold hair. Ginny glared coldly
at the blonde and decided that Cressida was indeed a bitch. She happened to
choose to say this to Cressida, with a few other well chosen words that made
Cressida's gold eyes narrow in anger.
"I'll do it," Ginny finally said, her voice low. There really wasn't any
choice not to. "How am I going to find him at this hour though?"
"You can kiss him in the morning." Cressida paused, then added with an evil
smile: "In the Great Hall -- in front of everybody."
Ginny gaped at Cressida. Then she turned stony. "Fine. Truth or dare . . ."
Ginny pretended to look around, then gave Cressida a look that would make
most people want to crawl in a hole and die. "Cressida?"
* * * * *
**Present**
Hermione would have laughed -- despite Ginny being her best friend -- but
Morton Uuk was no joke. No wonder the poor girl wasn't talking.
"Ginny?"
Ginny looked up questioningly at Hermione. "Huh?"
"You don't have to do it, you know. It's just a silly game--"
Cressida seemed to overhear this and slid over to put an arm around Ginny.
"Virginia here is a brave woman, aren't you, sweetie? Don't tell her what to
do, Hermione. She enjoys fun, unlike *some* people sitting across from me
with bad hair."
Hermione kicked across the table sharply without thinking. Cressida let out a
yelp. "Ooops! Sorry, Cressy, didn't mean to. Just muscle spasms. You know."
Ginny started laughing and Cressida moved away quickly, shooting Hermione a
lethal look.
Ginny's laughter died away quickly. "Oh, no. Hermione, he just came in!"
Hermione shot around to lay eyes on Morton and his retainer. Hermione
wondered if there really were lips underneath the thing, but she was too nice
to keep the thought in long. She brought her brown eyes back to Ginny's own
horrified ones. "You'd better get it over with. Don't worry, everybody will
know it's a dare. They might even respect you for it. Of course, in the wrong
ways but--"
"Mione, spare the lecture," Ron said, putting a comforting arm around
Hermione. He shot Ginny a look, somewhere between amusement and pity.
Ginny slid out of her seat and it wasn't her imagination that everyone in
Gryffindor was watching her movements closely. The one thought that made her
feel better was that Harry wasn't there to see her utter humiliation.
Ginny's legs seemed to move on their own being as she sure as hell couldn't
feel them and they were moving . . . finally she was up by Morton and she
gave him a small smile. "Hi, Morton."
"Ginny!" Morbort wheezed in return. He seemed to be happy that
somebody--especially a girl--was voluntarily talking to him. Well, he assumed
voluntarily.
Ginny stared at the retainer, then closed her eyes and tried to let herself
get over it quickly so she could run out of the Great Hall and hide in her
room for the rest of her life. Or at least the rest of the day. Or week.
"Morton, I've loved you for awhile now. I-I was just too daft to tell you,"
she said, her voice seeming to ring clearly in what seemed a suddenly silent
Great Hall. Of course people were still talking -- except for Gryffindor, who
were all looking at her intently. She made a disgusted squeak and leaned her
head to Morton's for a sloppy, short kiss that ended with her nose bumping
painfully against metal. She let out another squeak as everyone seemed to be
looking at her, Morton's amazed gaze was the worst. Laughter suddenly rang
out until it filled her entire body and she ran as fast as she could, away
from Morton. Far *far* away from him and his retainer. To a bathroom to brush
her teeth.
Ginny, of course having a bad day, ran straight into someone in the halls
though. She stopped and began with a string of 'sorrys' until she realized it
was Harry and that she was crying. She tried to run to the bathroom again,
but Harry grabbed her arm to stop her.
"You did it, didn't you?" he asked quietly.
Ginny nodded, her lower lip trembling. "Oh, Harry, I didn't want my first
kiss to be like that! I mean, I know I'm more of a tomboy, but I too had
dreams of a perfect first kiss, you know. It was horrid! His breath -- oh,
it's so . . . and that retainer . . .!"
Harry nodded. "I know, I know." There was a pause as she decided she felt a
little bit better and Harry was studying her carefully.
"What?" she asked after awhile.
"You deserved more than that for a first kiss. You should at least kiss
somebody without metal in their mouth."
"I know! Well--" Ginny was cut off as a pair of lips pressed themselves
against hers. She weakened as she realized vaguely that the lips belonged to
Harry. Her arms went to his neck to pull him down further and she kissed him
back fiercely, letting all of the emotions from the six years she'd known him
pour into it. Her crush from when she was little and the recent developement
of feelings were both satisfied -- as well as her stomach which was flopping
in unison with her heart. Just when she though she'd burst with the pleasure
of it all Harry's tongue went tentatively to her lips. She, of course, opened
her mouth to him willingly and let her own tongue glide into his mouth,
creating shivers and feelings and thoughts which she'd never imagined could
happen.
Harry broke away after a few minutes, breathing heavily. He untangled himself
from Ginny. "Did that make up for your first kiss? At least you had a good
first french kiss . . ."
Ginny nodded and walked backwards till she could lean agains the wall for
support. "Uh-huh."
"Sorry if that was weird," Harry said suddenly. "I mean,er, I just thought
. . ." There was a long stretch of silence. "I need to go. Breakfast."
Ginny nodded again and Harry left quickly. She followed him with her eyes,
her heart still racing and all thoughts of Morton and mortification gone from
her mind.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: Okay, I know, some of you complained about the whole Gin/Harry thing,
but . . . well, I did put some Herm/Ron in this and not all chapters will be
like this and the last chapter. I also plan on shipping them all off to the
Burrow in the next chapter or two chapters so you have Mrs. Weasley and a
shout out to look forward to.
Oh, and since I'm in such a hyper mood and you all know how I love talking
about myself, I want to say that memory boxes are *so* cool! My best friend
and I decided to make one that we're going to open on the night of our
graduation and it's *so cool*. It's a rather large shoebox covered in
glitter, magazine pictures, and stickers and . . . well, it *is* rather
girly, but what else would you expect from two girls? Hmm . . . maybe I
should stop writing these author's notes so that then I keep up the identity
of a *normal* person. :)
~HJtheB
P.S. I just want to add that I simply *hate* ff.net! They wouldn't let me
upload this chapter in document form, so I had to copy it into text and then
spent the last ten minutes making sure it would word wrap right. I hate text
documents!
next to him. He pecked her cheek in greeting.
"You missed a show last night," Ron said, smiling widely as he subtly pointed
out Ginny who was sitting across from them, looking at her food and nothing
else. She didn't even seem to have noticed that Hermione had come down. "You
really shouldn't have gone to bed so early."
Hermione gave him an annoyed look and puffed out her cheeks briefly to
emphasize her irritation. "I was *tired*. *You* of all people should know
*why*."
Ron gave her a guilty look, then decided to make it up by giving her a short
kiss and an innocent smile. Hermione shook her head, but couldn't hide her
own smile. "Ginny! Yoo hoo, are you there?"
Ginny looked up, startled. "Oh. Hi, Hermione. Sorry -- just a little deep in
thought. What is it?"
"What were you thinking about?" Hermione asked.
Ginny's eyes widened slightly. "Nothing. Just . . . homework. Wondering if I
did my Potions essay correctly."
Hermione's own eyes lit up. "Well I can help you! What was it on? I'm sure I
can tell you if you did it right if you can give me a--"
Hermione stopped as Ron whispered in her ear: "She's lying, you know. That
wasn't what she was thinking about so don't bother." The simple words had
nothing in then more than fact, but a shiver still went to Hermione's spine
as Ron's lips lingered so close to the sensitive skin on her neck. She closed
her eyes tightly to block out the thoughts running through her head, thinking
about what had happened last time she'd skipped class for some Ron time. When
she openend them she was angry to find a smirk on Ron's face and his eyes
glittering knowingly. She swatted him and glared.
Ginny, not seeming to notice Hermione's unfinished sentence, had gone back to
playing with her food.
"Okay, Ron, if you know all then do tell me what happened last night,"
Hermione said in an exasperated whisper after a few moments of silence.
"Well . . ."
* * * * *
**Previous Night**
". . . Okay, my turn. Truth or dare, Ginny?" Cressida, a fellow sixth year,
said to Ginny with a bright smile.
Ginny considered. "Dare," she said with a grin similiar to Cressida's on her
face. So far no one had had to do anything *to* drastic -- just a little
annoyance to the Fat Lady which cracked everyone up and a few people were
wearing different clothes than they'd started out with, so Ginny wasn't very
worried.
"I dare you to . . . kiss . . ." Cressida looked around the group of them and
Ginny's face took on horror. The only bright spot was that Harry was sitting
there. Maybe Cressida would be nice and choose him . . .
Cressida sighed briefly finding no one in the circle, then a malicious look
swept her face. "I dare you to kiss Morton Uuk from Hufflepuff. Then tell him
you've been in love with him for quite awhile."
Ginny's jaw dropped and several people snickered; a few gasps were also heard.
Morton Uuk -- the single most disgusting person ever alive. He had a retainer
that went over his whole face and seemed to never blow his nose. His breath
stunk like garlic and came out in great wheezes that knocked his wiry frame
into coughing fits occasionally.
"No!" Ginny immediately said. She buried her head in her hands. "No, no, no!"
"You have to. We all did our dares."
"How am I even supposed to get around that retainer?" Ginny nearly shrieked,
her voice high and squeaky.
"Find a way," Cressida answered, tossing her gold hair. Ginny glared coldly
at the blonde and decided that Cressida was indeed a bitch. She happened to
choose to say this to Cressida, with a few other well chosen words that made
Cressida's gold eyes narrow in anger.
"I'll do it," Ginny finally said, her voice low. There really wasn't any
choice not to. "How am I going to find him at this hour though?"
"You can kiss him in the morning." Cressida paused, then added with an evil
smile: "In the Great Hall -- in front of everybody."
Ginny gaped at Cressida. Then she turned stony. "Fine. Truth or dare . . ."
Ginny pretended to look around, then gave Cressida a look that would make
most people want to crawl in a hole and die. "Cressida?"
* * * * *
**Present**
Hermione would have laughed -- despite Ginny being her best friend -- but
Morton Uuk was no joke. No wonder the poor girl wasn't talking.
"Ginny?"
Ginny looked up questioningly at Hermione. "Huh?"
"You don't have to do it, you know. It's just a silly game--"
Cressida seemed to overhear this and slid over to put an arm around Ginny.
"Virginia here is a brave woman, aren't you, sweetie? Don't tell her what to
do, Hermione. She enjoys fun, unlike *some* people sitting across from me
with bad hair."
Hermione kicked across the table sharply without thinking. Cressida let out a
yelp. "Ooops! Sorry, Cressy, didn't mean to. Just muscle spasms. You know."
Ginny started laughing and Cressida moved away quickly, shooting Hermione a
lethal look.
Ginny's laughter died away quickly. "Oh, no. Hermione, he just came in!"
Hermione shot around to lay eyes on Morton and his retainer. Hermione
wondered if there really were lips underneath the thing, but she was too nice
to keep the thought in long. She brought her brown eyes back to Ginny's own
horrified ones. "You'd better get it over with. Don't worry, everybody will
know it's a dare. They might even respect you for it. Of course, in the wrong
ways but--"
"Mione, spare the lecture," Ron said, putting a comforting arm around
Hermione. He shot Ginny a look, somewhere between amusement and pity.
Ginny slid out of her seat and it wasn't her imagination that everyone in
Gryffindor was watching her movements closely. The one thought that made her
feel better was that Harry wasn't there to see her utter humiliation.
Ginny's legs seemed to move on their own being as she sure as hell couldn't
feel them and they were moving . . . finally she was up by Morton and she
gave him a small smile. "Hi, Morton."
"Ginny!" Morbort wheezed in return. He seemed to be happy that
somebody--especially a girl--was voluntarily talking to him. Well, he assumed
voluntarily.
Ginny stared at the retainer, then closed her eyes and tried to let herself
get over it quickly so she could run out of the Great Hall and hide in her
room for the rest of her life. Or at least the rest of the day. Or week.
"Morton, I've loved you for awhile now. I-I was just too daft to tell you,"
she said, her voice seeming to ring clearly in what seemed a suddenly silent
Great Hall. Of course people were still talking -- except for Gryffindor, who
were all looking at her intently. She made a disgusted squeak and leaned her
head to Morton's for a sloppy, short kiss that ended with her nose bumping
painfully against metal. She let out another squeak as everyone seemed to be
looking at her, Morton's amazed gaze was the worst. Laughter suddenly rang
out until it filled her entire body and she ran as fast as she could, away
from Morton. Far *far* away from him and his retainer. To a bathroom to brush
her teeth.
Ginny, of course having a bad day, ran straight into someone in the halls
though. She stopped and began with a string of 'sorrys' until she realized it
was Harry and that she was crying. She tried to run to the bathroom again,
but Harry grabbed her arm to stop her.
"You did it, didn't you?" he asked quietly.
Ginny nodded, her lower lip trembling. "Oh, Harry, I didn't want my first
kiss to be like that! I mean, I know I'm more of a tomboy, but I too had
dreams of a perfect first kiss, you know. It was horrid! His breath -- oh,
it's so . . . and that retainer . . .!"
Harry nodded. "I know, I know." There was a pause as she decided she felt a
little bit better and Harry was studying her carefully.
"What?" she asked after awhile.
"You deserved more than that for a first kiss. You should at least kiss
somebody without metal in their mouth."
"I know! Well--" Ginny was cut off as a pair of lips pressed themselves
against hers. She weakened as she realized vaguely that the lips belonged to
Harry. Her arms went to his neck to pull him down further and she kissed him
back fiercely, letting all of the emotions from the six years she'd known him
pour into it. Her crush from when she was little and the recent developement
of feelings were both satisfied -- as well as her stomach which was flopping
in unison with her heart. Just when she though she'd burst with the pleasure
of it all Harry's tongue went tentatively to her lips. She, of course, opened
her mouth to him willingly and let her own tongue glide into his mouth,
creating shivers and feelings and thoughts which she'd never imagined could
happen.
Harry broke away after a few minutes, breathing heavily. He untangled himself
from Ginny. "Did that make up for your first kiss? At least you had a good
first french kiss . . ."
Ginny nodded and walked backwards till she could lean agains the wall for
support. "Uh-huh."
"Sorry if that was weird," Harry said suddenly. "I mean,er, I just thought
. . ." There was a long stretch of silence. "I need to go. Breakfast."
Ginny nodded again and Harry left quickly. She followed him with her eyes,
her heart still racing and all thoughts of Morton and mortification gone from
her mind.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
A/N: Okay, I know, some of you complained about the whole Gin/Harry thing,
but . . . well, I did put some Herm/Ron in this and not all chapters will be
like this and the last chapter. I also plan on shipping them all off to the
Burrow in the next chapter or two chapters so you have Mrs. Weasley and a
shout out to look forward to.
Oh, and since I'm in such a hyper mood and you all know how I love talking
about myself, I want to say that memory boxes are *so* cool! My best friend
and I decided to make one that we're going to open on the night of our
graduation and it's *so cool*. It's a rather large shoebox covered in
glitter, magazine pictures, and stickers and . . . well, it *is* rather
girly, but what else would you expect from two girls? Hmm . . . maybe I
should stop writing these author's notes so that then I keep up the identity
of a *normal* person. :)
~HJtheB
P.S. I just want to add that I simply *hate* ff.net! They wouldn't let me
upload this chapter in document form, so I had to copy it into text and then
spent the last ten minutes making sure it would word wrap right. I hate text
documents!